Inside Croydon

New owners of The Norbury, the big old boozer on London Road that closed its doors nearly five years ago, have put forward a set of proposals for public consultation to refurbish the building as an Islamic community centre, to be called the Norbury Hive.

The landmark building on the main road between Streatham and Thornton Heath was built in the 1930s as a hotel.

More disruption for Thameslink and London Overground passengers this weekend and into next week due to engineering works.

The London Overground network is affected by Network Rail and Tube engineering works, with no service on the Weaver, Mildmay and Lioness lines, and with the Windrush line from West Croydon also affected.

Some engineering works could affect services on these lines for the next six weekends – so always check before you set off.

Windrush line

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Louis Carserides is a third councillor forced to alter their register of interests after questioning from Inside Croydon, as the long-time aide of MP Steve Reed quits his government job.

EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

An Inside Croydon investigation has uncovered a third Croydon councillor who has broken the Town Hall’s Code of Conduct by failing to update their register of interests promptly.

From February, Transport for London will be withdrawing the 118 route, which runs from Brixton to Morden via Streatham, Streatham Park and Mitcham.

The decision has been made following a public consultation in which, even TfL admits, there was overwhelming public opposition to the proposals.

TfL’s proposals were for the 45 route to be extended to cover parts of the 118 service. Among the objections to the changes were that this longer route could prove less reliable. TfL did not include service frequencies in its consultation.

Film star Adam Pearson says he is ‘heartbroken’ by Commons vote: ‘We have a government who are willing to help disabled people die whilst doing nothing to help them live’

All four of Croydon’s MPs – three Labour, one Conservative – voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill when it had its second reading in at the House of Commons yesterday.

But some disability rights groups and activists reacted with dismay that the Bill passed this stage with a vote of 330 for and 275 against.

Tax-avoiding millionaires and newspaper owners are getting all excited about calls for another election. The same people who have said it’s too soon for another vote on Brexit, reports WALTER CRONXITE, political editor

A petition raised by a publican in the West Midlands who describes himself as “patriotic, not political” (oh, how we laffed at that!) has attracted 2.5million signatures in just a few days.

But in Croydon, barely 2% of the electorate have bothered to sign the thing, official figures show.

WALTER CRONXITE, political editor, on a new unwitting subject for a sharp parliamentary pen

The last time a national newspaper dismissed a public figure as a “turnip”, Graham Taylor’s days as England football manager were numbered.

Yesterday, it was Steve Reed OBE, the townie MP for Streatham and Croydon North, who was given the turnip treatment, this time not by The S*n, but by the gently incisive pen (or laptop) of Guardian parliamentary sketchwriter, John Crace.

CROYDON IN CRISIS: A listed building, and surrounding parkland that was bought by public subscription 100 years ago, has been declared by government agency Historic England to be at risk of neglect, decay or inappropriate development. By STEVEN DOWNES

Tory MP Chris Philp and his podgy pal, Jason Perry, were telling a park friends group last night how “protecting and maintaining our green spaces and parks is vital”.

Our environment correspondent, PAUL LUSHION, reports on how the tide of support for one local MP in government is going out very quickly

Steve Reed, the Croydon MP promoted to environment secretary in Keir Starmer’s government, is rapidly finding himself out of his depth in a sea of sewage… and worse.

Devoted townie Reed was quickly found out by the farming lobby, who are ready to march on Westminster after changes in inheritance tax announced in last week’s Budget.

Activists in Norbury and Streatham are halfway to a fund-raising target to meet legal costs to consider a possible challenge to planning permission for a 14-storey tower which locals fear will destroy forever one of the finest views in all London.

Lambeth Council has granted permission to the Woodgate Tower development, to be built on the site of a disused Homebase off Greyhound Lane.

This decision was made despite more than 1,000 petition signatures, 800 formal objections and 400 complaints uploaded on to the GLA website.